Andrew Mackie, from the Scottish Executive’s pupil support and inclusion division, told a Dumfries conference on promoting positive discipline that an action plan, promised in the autumn by the Education Minister, would be finalised and published “within the next couple of weeks or so”.

Mr Mackie said the Executive is taking the 36 recommendations of the Minister’s disciplinary task group report “very seriously”. But he added:

“There are already priorities for schools and local authorities where teachers’ time is already committed and plans are being prepared. We are keen that the action plan reflects real life.

“To do that, we have been in discussion with the task group to ensure that we understood the context which they describe in their report. We have also spoken to the local authorities and directors of education and social work.”

The action plan would reflect the realities of life in schools. “It will be something that will have a real time-scale and that people will feel is of practical value.”

Responding to Mr Mackie’s comments, Fraser Sanderson, director of education in Dumfries and Galloway, told The TES Scotland he hoped the action plan would avoid running to 36 recommendations which could “sink the ship”.

Mr Sanderson said: “A lot will hinge on how the resulting action plan is presented and resourced.”

Neal McGowan, head of Gracemount High in Edinburgh, who was secretary to the task group, told the conference that schools should not be committed to excluding pupils even as part of a hierarchy of sanctions. “Exclusion should only take place if all other strategies, including multi-agency support and other alternatives to exclusion, have been exhausted.”

The Dumfries conference, organised by the Anti-Bullying Network and the Ethos Network, also heard a plea from Professor Pamela Munn, another member of the task group, for pupils to be given a greater say in what and how they are taught.